Hearts That Are Crimson
by Cristya Blade
Summary: Rukia and Renji are chosen for the yearly purge of hollows from Aokigahara Forest and they bring Ichigo and Orihime to help. But when something starts calling Rukia from deep within the woods, they are enveloped in a darkness they can't escape. IxO/RxR
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hello all, in case you were wondering... No, of COURSE I would not forget you on Valentine's Day! So as a present (I suppose) here is the beginning of a new story (which I will be working on periodically). It is a crossover between Bleach and the video game Fatal Frame 2. I'm not sure how many Bleach fans will have played it, but you should try it out (it's SO good). I'll try to put in all the back story needed to understand Fatal Frame, but as the story progresses if things get so confusing you just want to pull your hair out, let me know.

As this is just the beginning of a story it is probably not the romance you were hoping for on Valentine's, but this was all I could think of to write up. I appreciate you taking your time to read it, and hope you enjoy it.

This fic is rated T because there may occasionally be slight language and also for some instances of horror.

(For those of you who actually DO know about Fatal Frame or want information on Aokigahara Forest, there will be additional notes after this chapter for your consideration.)

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><p>"Remind me again why we're doing this?" Ichigo growled as he glanced from the window back to Rukia's face peering over the back of the seat in front of him.<p>

"Orders from Soul Society. Renji and I were drawn for the assignment this year."

"Rukia was the one who drew the names, actually," Renji moaned in the seat next to her. "She has awful luck with drawings."

"Quiet you!" she said turning sharply towards him, "You're not helping any by sitting there whining like a baby."

Renji was actually taking up two seats in the van they were riding in; his soul form next to Rukia in the middle seat and his gigai slumped in the seat belt in the front next to Uehara. Mayuri had wanted to experiment with different kinds of gigai and gave Renji one with motion sickness. When it got bad enough Renji had fled his gigai, but he was still feeling the after effects.

"I don't mean what are you and Renji doing," Ichigo cut in wanting to avoid the inevitable squabble that was coming between the two, "I mean why do I have to come along?"

"You're a substitute shinigami aren't you?" Rukia turned back to him with a sour look on her face. "Then do your job."

"Ok, but then why did _she_ have to come?" Ichigo motioned to the orange haired girl sleeping next to him, leaning against the window and drooling. They left early because the drive was going to be a long one so it was still dark when they first set out. For a while she talked to help keep Uehara awake, but eventually the others had fallen asleep to Orihime's voice, Ichigo included. He awoke later to a noise that was somewhere between a snort and a giggle. He was a little confused, his pillow was a bit harder than usual but it smelled really good. And why did he have such a cramp in his neck? His confusion grew when he opened his eyes and noticed that Rukia had been aiming her cell phone at him. And that was the inopportune moment when he realized the warmth next to him was his sleeping friend. He turned beet red as he tried to simultaneously shove her gently off and retrieve the phone from Rukia, who said "Oops," rather mockingly and passed it to Renji who said "Oops," rather miserably and passed it to Uehara who grabbed it openly and slipped it in his pocket as he finished up with, "_Ara_, it's fallen into my pocket and I can't get it out because I'm busy driving." And both the phone and the smug look on Uehara's face still remained there.

"We're going to Aokigahara Forest to hunt all the hollows out," Rukia said with a frown. "But the reason that there are so many in the first place is because of all the suicides. So what if we stumble across someone who is still alive and needs first aid? I could do it but I might be too busy with hollows. Or they might be beyond my ability to heal. I know first aid but it's not as if I'm in the fourth squad."

Ichigo wanted to object but he couldn't think of an argument to put up against that. Besides, Orihime had already been in the van and ready for a road trip when they'd come to pick him up.

"If there's going to be a lot of hollows-"

"She'll be fine," Rukia faced forward in her seat again. "Orihime's pretty diligent about training. I would know, I've trained with her before."

"Yeah," Ichigo shifted in his seat uncomfortably as his hand accidentally brushed against Orihime's on the seat, "About that, why didn't you tell me..."

"We're here!" Uehara called from the front seat. The van slowed to a stop at an odd angle and spanned three parking spaces. Uehara admitted that it had been a while since he last had to drive. Renji fiddled to get his seat belt off. He hadn't really needed it while he was in spirit form any way. Rukia turned to smack Ichigo with her glove and then Rukia tapped herself and emerged neatly from her gigai. She was almost able to stand up properly even though the ceiling to the van was low. Orihime snorted and shifted in her sleep.

"Oi, wake up Inoue," Ichigo reached over the seat to grab his bag gingerly so that he wouldn't hit her with it.

Orihime mumbled and sat up. "Did the bunny land the helicopter safely?"

Rukia immediately turned at the word bunny and looked deep in thought. "Yes," she answered. "It would have, wouldn't it?"

Orihime nodded and stretched and blinked herself awake. And then she did what she always did when she saw Ichigo; she smiled. Ichigo's face relaxed into what might have been a smile if he weren't so irritated at the whole situation.

"How much time do you think you'll need? The average is three days and two nights, I think all four of you should be able to take care of it by then." Uehara sounded lighthearted about it, probably because he was no longer part of Soul Society and never had to do pain-in-the-butt missions like this any more.

"We could get it done faster if this forest weren't so friggin' huge," Renji muttered. He glanced at the forest with a look of distaste and grabbed a bag out of the back.

"Or if some of us could sense reiatsu better," Rukia glanced meaningfully at Renji and Ichigo.

"They call it The Sea of Trees," Orihime looked at the forest too, but with an expression markedly different than Renji's. "It's beautiful. Well. I mean, it would be beautiful... except for what happens here..." Her face fell a little.

"That's what you're here for," Rukia gave Orihime a look that was partially serious and partially comforting. "To save those that can be saved."

"Right. I'll do my best."

"Alright you all seem to be ready then. Don't forget your camping gear!" Uehara called cheerfully from the front seat.

"Can't we just come back and sleep in the van at night?" Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably.

"Nonsense, you'll get more ground covered if you don't have to come back every night. And around here night is probably the time when you'll find most of your hollows any way. Besides, I won't even be here to pick you up until the mission is complete."

"Uehara-san is leaving us here?" Orihime asked with a slight downturn of her mouth.

Ichigo creased his brows even more than usual. "Why?"

"You'll be going in your spirit forms and I'll be keeping your bodies with me. I can't very well sit in a van by the suicide forest with the bodies of three young people, now can I? I'll be going to a hotel."

"You better not do anything weird with my body," Ichigo muttered.

"Oh, quit whining about your gigai and get out here," Renji yanked on Ichigo's uniform from the van door.

"It's not a gigai, it's my body! Hey!"

The two tumbled out into the parking lot and Rukia glanced casually over them and she stepped out of the van gracefully.

"Thank you for the ride, Uehara-san!" Orihime said while grunting to lift her bag out of the trunk. "Take care!"

"You too, Inoue-san," he replied. "Be careful. This forest really is huge. Even though there's a purge of it every year I wouldn't be surprised if there's places that even the shinigami haven't found.

Orihime nodded and waved. Uehara watched as the door was shut and the group of four walked towards the woods and began to squabble amongst themselves. He turned his attention back to the three empty bodies in the car and sighed. It was going to be a long weekend.

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><p>Attention my dear Fatal Frame-ers (and all those who decide to keep reading): Fatal Frame 2 takes place in All God's Village (of course), which is in a forest that is scheduled to be dammed (as in, yes, the water kind... although it is also damned...). Aokigahara Forest is a real forest at the base of Mount Fuji and is probably not the forest in which the game takes place. BUT, it is a creepy forest in Japan and is also HUGE, so huge that unfortunately bodies are discovered there weekly. For more information on Aokigahara Forest, google it or look it up on wiki. What I said in the story earlier is true, it is a hugely popular place for suicides. I mean no disrespect to the dead or any who have lost anyone in this forest. It just seemed like a logical place for the story to happen. Thanks.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: So... it turns out this story has been rather poorly received. I personally like it and thought it would be a good idea, but not a lot of people are reading it. Thank you to foxfang27 for reading and reviewing though : )

If this story doesn't get a little busier I'll probably either work on it more slowly or eventually abandon it, BUT I'm not ready to abandon it just yet! Here is chapter two, and you can expect the haunting to begin in the next chapter! Enjoy and have a nice day.

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><p>Ichigo tried not to gape at the size of Orihime's massive duffel bag as the four of them made their way towards the woods. He had a normal sized backpack but Rukia and Renji only had small bags slung over their shoulders. He didn't know how they were planning on making it three days with so little; he was worried he didn't have enough with his bag stuffed full. Plus he wasn't exactly a camping person, Karakura town wasn't known for its vast expanses of wilderness.<p>

"Here," he reached out a hand towards Orihime's bag, "I can carry that for you."

"No, that's ok," she smiled and swung the bag around. "I'm a very sturdy girl. I can carry it."

Ichigo eyed the huge bag again and wondered just what she had brought, anyway. _Probably food_, he thought. He was right.

They kept a watchful eye out for others as they climbed over the small gate meant to keep people out. The three shinigami couldn't be seen, but it would be a problem if someone spotted Orihime walking by herself into a forbidden forest with a huge bag of supplies.

The signs along the path were depressing, all warnings to stay out of the forest and encouragement messages for people not to kill themselves. Ichigo frowned and looked to the others. Rukia was stone faced. The assignment probably did bother her, but she was too dutiful to show it. Renji stared off into the forest but he probably wasn't thinking anything deep, his face was blank. Orihime was carefully staring down at her hands.

_They really shouldn't have brought her along to a place like this..._

Once they were far enough into the trees not to be seen, Rukia halted them.

"Alright, we'll cover more ground if we split up. Soul Society purges this area of hollows at least once a year, so none of the ones we encounter in the woods should have had the chance to get too big. And if we find a soul that isn't a hollow, we perform a soul burial. Orihime, if we find anyone alive we'll come get you."

Orihime nodded and then swallowed noticeably. "What if... what if there are still... um..." Her hands tightened around the strap of her bag. "What if we find bodies?"

Ichigo paled at the thought. He saw ghosts and hollows frequently, but a dead body was somehow different. The though of himself- or worse, Orihime- having to see one just seemed too disturbing.

Rukia frowned but was more composed. "I feel for them, but there's nothing we can do. We don't have the time to bury them and besides, there are crews that come around to look for people. We don't want someone's fate left unknown forever just because we thought we were doing a good deed." The frown on Rukia's face intensified, but the rest of them nodded. Renji stepped up next to the smaller shinigami and rested an elbow on her shoulder.

"Alright then, let's go."

Rukia nodded. "Ok Renji. You go with Orihime. I'll drag Ichigo along with me."

Renji scoffed loudly. "This is a shinigami duty, shouldn't the shinigami go together at least?"

"Orihime doesn't know shunpo and you're not that good at it. Ichigo and I can move faster while you two cover the ground more carefully."

"I... I was kind of hoping I could team up with, uh, you..." Orihime said meekly to Rukia.

"That'd probably be nicer, except that these two are bad at sensing reiatsu. And they're both muscle-headed fighters, where as you and I can do more. It's best to spread out our abilities."

Orihime nodded and suddenly whirled in concern in Renji's direction.

"Ah! It's not that I didn't want to go with Abarai-san, any way!" She attempted to smile at him. "I just hadn't seen her in a while is all."

Rukia smiled. "We'll have some time for that later."

"Hey," Ichigo stepped up, "wouldn't it be better if-"

"Are you going to complain, too?" Rukia fisted her hands on her hips. "No more stalling. Let's go." She grabbed Ichigo and began dragging him off into the forest.

"But- hey!" He looked back at Renji, who had his arms folded crossly, and Orihime who was waving enthusiastically and shouting "Take care!"

"Don't you think it would be better if I went with Inoue?"

"No," Rukia tugged on his sleeve firmly, "You'd baby her. And things need to get done."

"Yeah, but it was kind of unfair to drag her along like this..."

Rukia half smiled, half sneered.

"You need to stop doing that. She's much more capable than you think, you know. She can do the job."

Ichigo frowned and shook his sleeve loose. "I never said she couldn't."

"Fine. Then let's go." Rukia flash stepped and was gone. Ichigo stole another quick glance back. He couldn't see either Renji or Orihime through the trees any longer. He sighed and followed Rukia.

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><p>"Tch, that brat," Renji scoffed as Rukia and Ichigo walked away.<p>

"Take care!" Orihime shouted after them. "So," she turned slowly to Renji and attempted a smile, "Shall we, Abarai-san?"

"Ok," Renji scratched his head awkwardly. He had no idea how he was going to protect this girl who was all smiles and boobs, but he knew that if he didn't do a good job of it there would be a long line of people waiting to kill him with Ichigo at the front of it.

"So, this is my first time coming here, but I think Rukia might have been here before. Any way... this is the human world so I guess you'd know where to look better than me."

Orihime hadn't ever been to Aokigahara before either, but she didn't want to disappoint Renji.

"Oh. Alright. I'll see if I can sense anything and we'll go from there."

Orihime closed her eyes and concentrated. From one direction, she could feel Ichigo and Rukia leaving. Their power was too strong to sense much else from that area, but if either group got in trouble at least it would be easy enough for them to find one another from bursts of reiatsu. So there was them; and then she could also feel Renji next to her. She tried to stretch out further and startled herself when she did. Her eyes shot open. There were so many spirits in this forest. _So many_. She took a deep breath and tried to ignore the trembling feeling that was coming on.

"Hmm? Everything ok?"

"There's too many for me..." Orihime blew out a breath and scratched her head. "I don't know how to start with just one."

Renji folded his arms and nodded. "I'm not as bad at sensing them as Rukia thinks. Even I can tell there are plenty. They went that way, so we'll just go this way." He gestured vaguely in the opposite direction.

Orihime nodded and fell into step a couple feet away from him as they started to move forward.

"Y'know, aside from all the bad things that happen here, this is actually kinda fun," she said. "It's exciting! Four teens go into the woods to find ghosts!" She made some type of absurd moaning noise and poised her hands in claws in front of her. "And the first thing we did was split up, so it's just like a horror movie."

Renji looked at her askance. _This is her idea of fun?_

Orihime waited for a reply but when she got none she chuckled nervously and kept talking. Something about chainsaws or axe murderers, he wasn't really listening any longer.

"And then there was this one I watched where there's a monster that eats dreams, and I don't think it was supposed to be a scary movie but it scared me so I didn't sleep for maybe a week... I'm not sure if I didn't sleep because I was afraid of the monster or because I was trying to stay up and catch it, but I think the name of the movie was... _Ah_! Santen Kesshun!"

Renji raised an eyebrow, that was an odd sounding name for a movie. "Santen Kesh-"

Before he could finish his thought an orange glow flared up in front of Orihime just before a black blur shot out from behind a tree. The black blur, which he could now recognize as some kind of scythe-like arm, belonged to a hollow that was slowly emerging. Renji grit his teeth and firmed his footing while he put his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"Alright," he smiled his canine grin, "Bring it on."

The hollow emerged and his look went from cocky to confused. It was, by far, the smallest hollow he had ever seen. It wasn't much bigger than a human woman and was still small enough to hide behind the tree they'd been passing.

"Oh..." he said looking embarrassed. He glanced at Orihime who shrugged from behind her shield and looked back at the hollow.

"Maybe I'll just, uh..."

He walked up to the hollow and it howled... kind of a weird mewlish groaning howl.

"Well, get to Soul Society already!"

He swiftly cut it down the center with his plain zanpakuto, not even bothering to release shikai. The hollow glowed and faded.

"Hooray!" Orihime smiled up at him and clapped her hands together once. "That's one down!"

Renji sighed and tried not to turn red from being praised from defeating such a weak hollow. If Rukia were there, she would have laughed her ass off.

"Yeah yeah," he muttered, dreading the rest of this hunt. "Let's go."


	3. Chapter 3

_Very _slight content warning: Ichigo has a dream later in the chapter that seems as if it could go bad, but it does not. Just wanted to shout the warning out there. Thanks for reading!

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><p>"There now, you'll be alright," Rukia said as she removed the hilt of her sword from the spirit's forehead. A seal appeared and glowed until it enveloped the man and he was gone.<p>

"How many is that now?" Ichigo shifted restlessly and stared at the spot the spirit had been. "Sixteen?"

"Hmm... 19," Rukia dusted off the knees of her outfit and put her sword back in its place.

"And only four hollows. There's more running around Karakura on a bad day."

"Yes, well, we don't want any of the areas around here to have any of those 'bad days' do we? No high level shinigami are stationed nearby."

"Was it like this before? You said you'd been right?"

"Yes, with Nii-sama. We made much quicker work of it. He didn't really seem to like the place."

"Does he like anything?"

Rukia bristled and put her hands on her hips, probably preparing for a lecture.

"Relax," Ichigo raised his hands defensively, "I know how he feels. It's so dark under the trees you can't even tell what time of day it is."

"He said something like that, too. He told me not to go where the sun and moon wouldn't reach... I guess the shady parts made him antsy. Well, that and the voices."

Ichigo stared at her doubtfully. "Voices? You're really going to try and spook me with a campfire story?"

"Come nightfall you'll see. It's nearly time."

"Are we making camp then?"

"You're making camp."

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><p>Orihime kept her mouth firmy shut. She didn't want to complain that her feet hurt. She walked everywhere, every day. She just wasn't used to walking <em>all<em> day. Or on unstable mountain terrain. After a while she'd become grateful that Renji didn't want to talk because she was out of breath. But now his voice was a welcome noise, just like the last bell in school.

"Are those... what do you guys call them... crickets?"

Orihime stopped and immediately felt her feet throbbing. "Huh?"

"Those noise bugs. I forgot the name."

Orihime listened to what earlier had been a faint chirping and was now a varitable cacaphony of noise.

"Oh. Circadas."

"Are they going to shut up?"

"N-no... not really."

"It's getting dark. Let's stop."

"Roger," Orihime said and dropped her bag with a satisfying thud.

"I'll start a fire, you can make the tea if you want."

"I, uh," Orihime fidgeted as Renji stopped out a clear area for a cooking fire. "I didn't bring any tea." She felt like a total failure as a Japanese person.

"I did," he stacked some twigs and cursed as they fell. "In the bag, over there."

Orihime opened his bag, which was full of pills and other oddities, and took out a small teapot and two matching cups. The packet of tea was unlabeled, but it smelled strongly like tea, so it was easily identifiable.

"This is convenient," she tried to say cheerily as she approached the area where the fire would be, once Renji stopped scowling and concentrating and finally made a fire kido. "Small pot, two cups. What kind of tea is it?"

"Oh, I don't know some fancy herb crap. And I don't need a cup, I don't want any. Hate the stuff."

"You hate tea? How come you brought it?"

"Oh... It's Rukia's favorite tea... Figured she'd forget it so I brought some. Well, either forget it or decide it was unnecessary weight and that she should only bring essentials- Ah! There we go."

Renji had conjured up a small fire, which the kindling took, but it would need more substantial logs to last through the night.

"Look, all I have to do is take a food tablet. You got all that mess with you. If you want to cook something, you'd better get on it. I'll go get some fire wood."

"Right."

Orihime watched him leave and began digging through her bag, deciding what she should feast upon tonight. _He doesn't like tea_. Somehow that seemed important. _He brought it for Rukia_. Hmm. Probably a banana bean paste sandwich. _Her favorite kind, too_. Orihime had poor women's intuition, so her brain was really trying. _He brought two cups, so he probably was going to drink it with her even though he doesn't like it_. Maybe a banana bean paste sandwich would taste good toasted, may as well try. _Oh... I wonder if he likes her?_

Orihime, on cue, got a goofy vacant look on her face and began to imagine the possibility, within bounds. She'd previously believed that Ishida liked Rukia, which he denied several times when prompted to ask her out. There was a moment where she thought Chad might have liked her, but he hadn't really given any indication since; and Ichigo... She squoze her sandwich a little too hard and a glob of bean paste leaked onto her hand. She quickly remedied that by cleaning it with her mouth- no reason to waste good bean paste- and tried to concentrate more on her actions. It was pretty logical that Renji _might_ like Rukia, right? She was smart, and pretty, and talented... and so many other guys liked her.

Her mind was going down the wrong path, one she didn't want to traverse again. She'd been here before, but Rukia and her were friends now, and Rukia was a really good person. She shouldn't be jealous of Rukia _or _mad at herself. She nodded resolutely and dismissed the idea that Renji liked Rukia, because her women's intuition was probably wrong again. A twig snapped and captured her attention, Renji was back with an armful of wood.

"I don't usually sleep by a fire. Will this last us the night?" he asked.

Orihime had no idea, as she didn't sleep by a fire either, which she chose not to point out. "I think so."

"So you got a tent in there or something?" he motioned towards her bag.

"Nope."

"Where are you going to sleep?"

Orihime pointed straight up proudly. "I've always wanted to try it!"

"In... in the trees? You'll fall. Ichigo'll kill me."

She shook her head. "No, I brought a hammock."

"Geez," he scoffed and took a food pill.

"Hey Abarai-san I was thinking while you were away; it was silly, I was wondering if I finally had women's intuition because I thought that you liked Kuchiki-chan and-"

Renji abruptly began choking on the pill he'd taken.

"Oh no, I'm sorry!"

"Water!" he croaked while coughing.

"Uh- Oh! Here you go!" she hastily handed him the water in the kettle.

Neither of them were thinking too well, so he instantly downed it and yelled and spat, luckily not in her direction.

"It's burning!"

"Oh no, I wasn't thinking! I'm so sorry! Here my faries will take care of it!"

Renji wondered if the night could become any more of a disaster, but at least his burned mouth gave him an excuse to not reply to her question.

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><p>Rukia was still perched atop a tree and wouldn't come down. She'd been up there for maybe half an hour. She was convinced she saw something glowing red, although neither of them sensed a hollow. After some searching nothing turned up and Ichigo thought she was mistaken, but she was <em>sure<em>. She'd climbed up higher to take a better look, and so far there was nothing.

"If it was really glowing you would have seen it by now. It'd stand out, it's a really dark night."

"Maybe I could see it better if you'd put out that fire!"

Ichigo poked at the fire but didn't put it out. He looked up at the treetop, still able to see Rukia but barely. "If you don't come down, you're taking first watch."

"Fine."

Ichigo had been itching for a little bit more action during the day, but he honestly felt no hollows around at the moment and tedium had turned to boredom which had turned to tiredness. He thought a little rest would do him good, and though he wasn't looking forward to it he bunched the tiny throw blanket he'd brought under his head and laid down on the forest floor. Sleep came quickly.

_He was on top of someone soft, supple. Both breathing hard, both making noise. In the part of his mind that was vaguely aware of what was going in he _intensely_ wished he weren't having this dream right here, right now. It had been popping up often lately and he hated himself for it. In that way that one can only know in dreams, he knew who he was with, even though he didn't see her face. Or rather, was willing himself not to. It was bad enough he knew who it was. He couldn't disrespect her even with a dream image of her face during- well let's just say he hated himself when he woke up enough as it was, he didn't need to add to the self loathing. He looked down. He didn't see anything... conspicuous. Nothing skin colored. Actually, he saw a skirt. The vision was a bit more blurry than normal, but it looked to be dark, maybe black. And ordinary skirt. This was unusual. He risked looking up a bit, which was generally dangerous. The chest he saw wasn't hers. He was a little ashamed he knew right off that it wasn't, but it was far too small. An ordinary white shirt, from what he could see, covered her completely; and his hands were noticably absent. They were higher up. The thought that he was having this dream about someone else, about _anyone _else threw him out of whack. He went into a bit a panic and that was when he first heard the screaming._

_"Masumi, WHY?!"_

_Scared, he looked up and to both his relief and his horror, it was a woman he didn't know. She had long black hair and a bit of a long face, twisted into the most awful look of terror. Closed around her neck were hands... someone's hands... HIS hands. He wanted to scream, nothing came out; he heard angry grunting, almost inhuman-_

_"Masumi-" she could barely rattle off the hoarse word before her eyes rolled back in her head and she went limp-_

He threw his arms to the side, rising as fast as he could and felt an intense heat near his right one. Still disoriented he pulled it away, barely missing the campfire. He was in a cold sweat and breathing hard, which he couldn't hear for the heart pounding in his ears.

"Whoa," Rukia stared at him, "Are you alright?"

"No," he breathed. He slowly remembered their situation and tried to calm down. He pressed a palm hard to his forehead. "Yes. Bad dream."

She leaned forward, an intense look in her eye. "Was it because of the voices? The laughing?"

Ichigo glared at her. "No! And stop trying to scare me with that crap. It's bad enough we have to be out here; we're not camping. No ghost stories."

"I'm not telling stories. I've heard them for about the last 15 minutes. They're still going, listen!"

Ichigo sat for a moment, trying to listen and humor her. He heard the fire crack a little, and maybe something like running water far away. Nothing else.

"Rukia there's nothing."

"There's voices!"

"Fine, what are they saying?"

"Laughing mostly. I don't like the laughter."

Ichigo yawned. "You might be hearing an animal."

"Animals don't talk. They're saying stuff like... I don't know, like, together... and why did you run... why do you kill?"

"Rukia!" Ichigo fell back on the ground in irritation. "I did the whole childhood thing; the camping in the summer and the feet that walk around the old house and the hook in the car door, the whole load. Just let me rest until it's my watch."

"You... you really don't hear them?" Rukia's expression was odd, but his arm was covering his face and he didn't see.

"No. If you have to do something, go patrol." Ichigo didn't really want to go back to sleep after that dream, but he knew he'd need the rest.

Rukia was quiet. He didn't know if she left or just shut up, but he eventually drifted back off.

_He was walking down a trail in the woods. Maybe dreaming about the day they'd just had? No. He was wearing a white kimono. And geta. He couldn't remember the last time he wore actual geta, rather than the sandals the shinigami wore. He looked up. Two anxious looking girls were there, twins by the looks of them, neither of which he recognized._

_"Now go," he told them in a voice that mingled with his own but wasn't his, "And whatever you do, _don't look back_."_

_They nodded. They ran. He did too, in the other direction, but not far-_

_It was dark. A scream in the dark and then he opened his eyes. He was hurt, was in a stone building. He went to the door and it was locked. There was a woman sniffling nearby, but he couldn't tell from where._

_"She was by herself," he heard from outside._

_"Perform the ceremony with Sae alone. Yae, why did you run?"_

_And he knew something, _something_ had been his fault, and it WAS going to result in a death. Ichigo himself was confused but the feeling that washed in was all too familiar. Someone I love is going to die. Because of my failure to protect._

He didn't sit up in a panic this time. He felt a wet drop on his hand and slowly opened his eyes. Was it a tear? If it was, thankfully it was by itself. He was cramped and sore and cold, so he sat up and stretched; ready to tell Rukia he'd take over now, even if it wasn't his turn. He expected to have to call out to her but she was nearby, sitting curled up at the bottom of a tree.

"Rukia? Everything ok?"

Her head snapped in his direction, apparently she hadn't noticed he was awake. She looked conflicted for a moment, furrowed her eyebrows, and eventually said, "I don't know."

"What happened?"

"I went out to patrol, as you so kindly suggested. But there weren't any hollows. Or spirits. Or, well, anything. I found a river nearby and I was refilling my canteen and I swear I saw a red glow again, so I took out my zanpakuto and followed it. I lost it, but then I saw..." Rukia swallowed and stopped talking.

"What did you see?"

She looked away uncomfortably and rubbed her arms. "I don't know. It- It kind of looked like... me."


	4. Chapter 4

Just for you guys on Valentine's Day, here's a super quick update (and a longer chapter than I had intended, too). But don't expect another update this quickly; sorry (I am slow). May your day be great!

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><p><em><em>It's dark. <em>It's dark. <em>It's dark. <em>It's dark. <em>It's dark. <em>It's dark. <em>It's dark. <em>It's dark. <em>It's dark. <em>It's dark<em><em><em><em><em>...<em>_______________

________________...________________

________________Over there. The same severed legs. Same severed arms. Same severed heads. Same pile of bodies. My neck hurts. Ha...________________

_________________It's dark. _It's dark. _It's dark. _It's dark. _It's dark. _It's dark. _It's dark. _It's dark. _It's dark. _It's dark. Heh heh.__________________________

__________________________...__________________________

___________________________It's dark...___________________________

___________________________...___________________________

___________________________Ha ha ha...___________________________

___________________________...___________________________

___________________________... Dear sister, is that you?___________________________

___________________________Have you returned for me?___________________________

___________________________...___________________________

____________________________It's dark.____________________________

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><p>Renji paced and stretched only briefly before he sat on the ground and slouched against a tree. Orihime watched him because there wasn't much else visible on the ground except for the small fire. The sky, however, was a different story. Here in the mountains, up in the high trees was a view she'd never seen before in her life. Orihime had lived in Karakura for a long time, as far back as she cared to remember, and even though it was just a town it was still populated and well lit. She could see the stars there, what she thought were a thousand stars or so, and she liked the night sky. But it wasn't like that up here. Here there weren't a thousand stars, there were a billion- maybe more. It was beautiful and it made Orihime happy and sad and nervous all at the same time. Happy she was able to see such a beautiful sight, sad she didn't know when she'd ever get to see it again, and nervous about how truly small and insignificant she actually was.<p>

She flicked on her flashlight and aimed it at the stars. _Here I am; I'm here too._ She knew her tiny light wouldn't reach space, but she wanted to pretend that it could. A breeze blew, rocking the hammock and chilling the arm she'd poked out of her blanket. She sighed and clicked the flashlight off, tucking it back in her fanny pack before snuggling back in.

"Goodnight, Abarai-san!" she called down.

"Hey, quit rocking around, you'll fall!" came the faint reply.

She looked back up at the sky. "Goodnight, stars." She imagined they all said goodnight back to her as she fell asleep.

_It was the most lovely dream, really. The sunlight was warm and it shone down on the river just perfectly. It made it sparkle and dance, and little reflections of the light came off the river and lit up rocks and trees and grass._

_The river was in a forest... maybe some enchanted forest, maybe this forest, Orihime wasn't sure. Dreams that happened in forests weren't rare for her with her vivid imagination. Her feet were in the stream; it felt gentle and cool. She leaned over to see her reflection- maybe this would be one of these cool dreams where she was a fairy or princess or something- but though the water was perfectly clear her face was wavy, distorted, skewed._

_She got up, figuratively, and stretched. There was another clearing in the trees not too far away. Dust and pollen fell in its streams of light and made it look like it was glowing. She stepped slowly towards it, the grass and forest floor surprisingly soft against her feet. She wanted to go to it, but as she approached the forest path between the river and the clearing she noticed that things in there were dark, so dark..._

It doesn't matter, just keep your eyes forward.

_She was suddenly on the path, already there in the dark. She knew the river was behind her, but she couldn't force her dream-self to turn and look. She took a step forward, then several steps. The clearing didn't come any nearer. After walking for a while, she ran. When she couldn't run anymore she bent over, hands resting on her knees, and tried to catch her breath. When she looked up again, she was already halfway there. She could look behind herself this time and yes, there was the river, although the scene looked oddly like a painting. The distance between the two clearings was only maybe 20 meters... so why wasn't she there yet?_

Oh boy, I must really be out of shape.

_Orihime began walking again and the same thing happened, no steps took her closer. The frustration compounded until she wanted to cry or scream, but she could do neither. Suddenly struck by inspiration, she looked down and up again. She stifled a moan when, this time, she was still no closer; yet something had changed. There was Ichigo in the clearing, not specifically looking at her but off into the distance. Perhaps this would be one of the dreams where he was a prince, and- noNono, that was embarassing- but still maybe..._

_She waved at him, he caught sight of her and waved back. He called something to her but she couldn't hear._

_"Kurosaki-kun! I'm on my way!"_

_She kept walking and the longer she walked the more he frowned._

Why aren't I getting anywhere?

_Against her control her head turned, at first all she could see was black but then she spotted the faintest hint of red. A pair of wings opened. It was a butterfly. It tested its wings and then finally fluttered. It was beautiful, like a dance. Orihime reached out to touch it, but it was just beyond her reach. She knocked a branch and suddenly they were all over, illuminating the darkness but not lightening the effect; soaring and fluttering and twisting. The glow didn't bother her, but the darkness surrounding it did._

No, no don't go in there.

_She turned her head back to Ichigo and tried to take another step, but her body didn't move. He called something out to her. She couldn't hear it, but for some reason she could read his lips. "Don't go." And she didn't want to. But her body turned away from him. There they were, the beautiful butterflies. _No, please._ She wasn't sure why she didn't want to follow them. They were lovely. She looked back at Ichigo. His brows knitted together in... what looked like concern, from this far away. _Stop this._ Back to the butterflies. The pull was too strong. She took a step. The world seemed to slip away from her but right before it did she turned her head back to the clearing where Ichigo was... or... had been. He was no longer there, the bush he was next to rustled and shook and before she could notice anything else her head was snapped forward to a new path. Not quite so dark, but an unnatural color under an unnatural moon. Something was behind her that she couldn't name and she ran towards the butterflies, which somehow... she wasn't sure _how_, but _somehow_ promised safety. The run was rough and things gouged and stuck into her feet until finally she stumbled under a shinto gate and-_

_Immediately in front of her was an enshrined rock. It was large and decorated, and though she was fairly sure she could see a village past it, it was somehow hard to keep her eyes off of it. It made her uncomfortable but she wasn't able to step either forward or back. Upon staring at it for a moment, she began to hear a hiss._

_"Sssssssssss..."_

_If she sqinted just right, looking at the rock... were those arms?_

_There was a presence behind her, sudden and fierce. The wind picked up and she could feel her hair blowing in her face. She took a step back and felt something extremely cold and hard. And though she wanted to look, she couldn't tear her eyes off the stone-_

_"Princess..."_

_NO, this wasn't how her dreams were supposed to go!_

_Arms spread out from the rock and just as they were about to grab her from in front, arms roughly encircled her from behind-_

_"Gotcha!"_

Orihime screamed and flailed and felt a sharp smack against one of her legs before the arms from behind pulled at her again, rough and insistant.

"Gotcha!"

"No! Let me go! Let me _go! _Ugh!"

Orihime threw an elbow back as hard as she could and heard a gruff, "oof."

_Oof?_

She opened her eyes and, unbelievably, there was Ichigo. Orange hair, brown eyes, and regular human- or shinigami or whatever- skin, and not... not anything _different_.

"Kurosaki-kun?"

A rustling noise came from below- she wasn't quite sure where below was at the moment because she was quite immobile- and she could hear Renji.

"What the heck is- Ichigo?! Oi what are you doing up there? What's going on?"

"That's what I wanna know!" his voice was rough and irritated, and somehow she could feel it coursing through him, even in his arms. _His arms..._ She blushed. Was he _holding her?_ "I'm running my butt off getting here and then once I arrive, here's Orihime, _falling out of a tree_. What the hell, Renji?"

_Ohmygosh _he was, full on bridal style and all. No wonder she couldn't move. She was quickly losing the ability to _think_. And her skin felt hot enough to scramble her brains!

"Hey," Renji called, "That whole tree thing was her idea, I told her it was stupid!"

"Well if you-"

"Um, Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime interrupted rather meekly. "Would you mind putting me down? Now?"

"Oh, sorry," he said and the fingers that had been digging into her thigh and shoulder loosened up. He jumped to the ground and awkwardly put her down.

"So what _are _you doing here Kurosaki-kun?"

Renji glanced around and raised an eyebrow. "Where's Rukia?"

"We found someone still alive, but barely. It's a good thing we had an early start this morning or he wouldn't have made it. She's back with him trying to do all she can," Ichigo turned to Orihime and gave her a urgent look, "but we need you to come. Right now." He turned his back to her and motioned for her to get on.

Orihime nodded and tried to hide her red face. She wanted to protest but she knew now wasn't the time and on her own she had no chance of keeping up with Ichigo's shunpo.

"Yes," she said and tried not to blush, "S-sorry about this."

"No problem," Ichigo said bending down so she could get a piggy back, "Renji, you gather up camp and follow us as soon as you can."

Renji grumbled but agreed, and as soon as they had his consent they were off. Orihime jerked back, she hadn't been holding on too tightly because she was nervous to invade his personal space, but now she was clutching on for dear life so tightly she was nearly stripping him of his shihakusho.

"Hey, are you ok back there?"

"Y-yes! Sorry about, um, this; I could run behind you if it's too much trouble, I mean I'm a little heavy and-"

"You're fine. Get ready."

"Ok."

They'd already passed their original starting point; a whole day's journey for her could be spanned by him in moments, and they kept on going and going.

"You and Kuchiki-chan made it all this way in just a day?"

"Yeah. We went pretty high speed-" it was a little hard for her to hear him as he ran, "didn't stop unless we sensed something..."

Orihime's eyes stung from the breeze but she couldn't really turn her head to either side or else all she saw was a blur of trees. The motion and speed didn't bother her, but the disorientation did. She squoze her eyes shut and ducked her face behind his head. She didn't mean to but she breathed on the back of his neck and she felt him twich and sorta miss a step, but he recovered quickly.

"Sorry!" she called again, and his diaphragm moved in what she hoped was a chuckle and not a grunt. She quickly moved her chin up above his head once more.

"Still ok back there?"

"Wheee," she said weakly.

Just about when she was ready to ask him to stop, he thankfully did. She was glad to be back on solid ground again and was already quite familiar with this part of the drill. Orihime immediately slid down his back and ran to Rukia, who was kneeling over a man.

"Thank you Kuchiki-chan! I can take it from here." A mellow orange glow emerged over the man and she turned her attention to him. "Sir?" She noticed his eyes were open, but barely. "Can you hear me sir? Don't worry I'm here to help you."

"I know," the man wheezed, "this young lady has been helping me as well."

Orihime looked to Rukia, surprised and confused. "He can see you?"

"Yes," Rukia nodded solemnly, "that's how close to death he was."

It took quite a while for the man to be able to speak properly again, but when he could he told them his sob story. Orihime felt for him, losing his job and afraid to be scorned by his wife and child, but she was glad when he said he'd decided he wanted to go back. Well, after a talking to from Rukia he'd decided anyway, and maybe Ichigo and Orihime had helped just a little. By the time they were confident he would go home to his family, Renji had arrived.

"How did you carry that thing the whole day yesterday?!"

"Renji, you made her carry it the whole day?" Rukia chided.

"It's not that heavy, really," Orihime said sheepishly, trying to diffuse the situation.

"Right. You heard her. You were just carrying a bag, I was carrying a whole human being," Ichigo smirked, "So what took you so long?"

"Whatever," Renji scowled, "I'm just as fast as you and you know it. I had to clean up the whole camp site. And make sure the fire was out."

"Good," Rukia said, "If you're really so fast you can carry this man back to the entrance of the forest while we go on ahead."

Renji shot her a look.

"What? He's too big for me to carry," Rukia shrugged.

"And I've already been to get you guys and back, with a passenger," Ichigo added.

Orihime could only wring her hands together, there wasn't really anything she could do to help. She turned to the now fully healed man to assist him instead. "You do still have your keys, right?"

The man nodded. "Hopefully my car hasn't been towed away. You know, it's a good thing you nice youths know the way back," the man looked at Renji and his now awkward pose incidating that the man should get on, "I'd get lost. And I certainly wouldn't want to go closer to that place with the horrible laughter on accident."

Orihime bid him goodbye as Renji rose and they left, but Ichigo slowly turned to Rukia with a concerned look on his face.

"Laughing?"

Rukia blanched. "He- he heard it too!"

"Oi Renji, come back-"

"Don't," Rukia said quietly, "they're already gone."

"Kuchiki-chan?" Orihime approached her slowly. "Are you alright? You look pale." She reached out tentatively and touched Rukia's shoulder. Rukia jumped just a little and looked up at Orihime.

"I'm fine," she reached up and patted her concerned friend's hand, "It's just that... last night, did you notice anything odd?"

"Odd?"

"Rukia was hearing voices," Ichigo sighed, "especially laughter."

Orihime looked from Rukia to Ichigo.

"No," he answered her unasked question, "I didn't hear them."

"I'm sorry Kuchiki-chan, I didn't hear voices, but, well..." Orihime tapped on her chin tentatively, "I think I kinda had a weird dream though."

Rukia crossed her arms, nodded, and looked to the side. "Sound familiar?"

Ichigo cleared his throat. "They're just dreams. I'd rather not talk about it."

"Ok," Rukia agreed, "for now, I'll let that go. Let's just keep moving until Renji catches up with us. I felt a hollow that way earlier, I think."

Ichigo nodded. "You good to go, Inoue?"

"I am!" she said, tugging on a strap of her bag still sprawled across the ground.

"Here, let me."

"No, I-"

"Really Inoue, it's ok."

They walked about 25 minutes at Orihime's pace, which was good because Rukia seemed a little bit out of it. There weren't any hollows, but soon they came across a more welcome noise.

"Hey is that a stream?" Orihime bounced towards the sound. "I could fill up my water bottle."

"It should be. I saw a river in the night while I was out patrolling."

They kept heading in that direction and came across it shortly. Orihime stooped over to fill her bottle and Rukia stared blankly into the distance. Ichigo dropped Orihime's pack, grateful for the rest.

"Hey, this place... did we pass it before? Have we been going in a circle? It seems familiar," Orihime got up and dusted off.

"No, we haven't-"

"Over there," Rukia raised a cautious finger and pointed, "Do you see them?"

Ichigo and Orihime went to stand behind her to take a better look.

"Hell butterflies?" Ichigo asked.

"No," Rukia squinted. "Hell butterflies have similar markings, but they're not that same color. And they don't glow."

"Kurosaki-kun, those butterflies, I think they were in my dream last night."

"Are you sure Inoue- hey! Where are you going?"

Rukia was walking towards the cluster of butterflies.

"To check it out, of course," she said, but her voice was oddly flat and she didn't look back.

"Kuchiki-chan!" Orihime ran after her, "I don't think that's a good idea!"

"Inoue- you guys, wait!" Ichigo ran after the two of them.

Bad things can happen in the blink of an eye, but this particular moment would have eluded even the sharpest of observers. In a second Ichigo reached for Orihime, Orihime reached for Rukia, and Rukia reached for the butterfly. Three fingers touched three different things at the same time, but the results were the same. The three personages were gone, leaving only two swords to show that they had ever been there.

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><p>A quick note to all my ardent Fatal Frame fans: Yes I know crossing the path of the twin dieties statue is actually what spirits people away... this is just more convenient, please forgive me. Actually you'll probably find quite a few plot indiscrepancies for convenience's sake... I'm sorry *bows*<p> 


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